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Healing items
Healing items are those used to restore lost health, be it a temporary health boost or a permanent restoration. They can be found in ambulances or randomly throughout levels, but are most often found inside of first aid stations. First aid stations may contain up to four bottles of Pain pills, but there is also a chance that they contain First aid kits instead, depending on how well the Survivors are doing and the difficulty level. First aid stations found in safe rooms and at finales always contain First aid kits. Primary healing slot First Aid Kit The First Aid Kit, colloquially known as a med kit or health pack, is used to heal any damage the Survivors take during a campaign. When carried by Survivors, it is held on like a backpack with no visible straps holding it. First Aid Kits can always be found inside of safe rooms, and during the finale of a campaign. They can also be found in first aid stations and in random places anywhere else throughout the campaign, though this is very rare. There are odd occasions where the Survivors can encounter fixed locations for First Aid kits that permanently spawn outside the saferoom such as in The Parish campaign in the chapter The Park where these kits will always appear inside the CEDA trailer. On Expert difficulty, most first aid kits found in the level itself will be replaced by Pain Pills. The only sure way to get health packs on Expert is to grab one in the safe room or at the finale. Finding one in the level itself is extremely rare and should not be wasted. In Versus mode, if the players heal each other, the Director will spawn more health kits within the map. Keep in mind if you are the first team to play as the Survivors, whatever health kits you caused the Director to spawn will also be available to the other team when it's their turn. This could be a hazard as the Infected team could use it to their advantage for when they become the Survivors and learn the locations of the spawned health kits when dead or as a ghost in spawn mode. In Left 4 Dead 2, the player has the choice to pick up a Defibrillator or Ammo Upgrades instead, which can be used to revive dead teammates or ignite/explode the Infected with special ammunition. First Aid Kits can randomly be spawned by the Director when Survivors are obviously hurting and low on/have no healing items. They can be spawned in places which the Survivors have recently searched, depending on the whims of the Director. Some people may notice that there are not a lot of First aid kits in the Mercy Hospital. In The Passing, First Aid Kits can sometimes be recovered from dead Fallen Survivors. Usage It takes five seconds to use the First Aid Kit to heal yourself or another Survivor, during which you cannot defend yourself in any way. However, in Left 4 Dead 2, if you are under the effects of Adrenaline while healing yourself or another Survivor, it will only take three seconds. Instead of restoring a set amount of health, First Aid Kits will only restore 80% of damage the Survivor has taken. For example, if a Survivor has taken 70% damage, using a First Aid Kit will add 56% (80% of 70) to the Survivor's health, bringing the Survivor to 86% health. This healing is not based on any temporary health a Survivor might have after taking Pain Pills, and will remove any extra health gained by them. Survivors healing after incapacitation work on the same rules, and thus, always receive 80 health points. Note that First Aid Kits can never bring a Survivor back to 100% health, so using more to try to do so is a waste. As a weapon A Survivor can use their melee attack while they are holding the First Aid Kit, though the only time you might consider doing so is if you were in the middle of healing yourself or another Survivor and you got attacked suddenly. If that happens, it would be best to use your melee attack to push the attackers away to give yourself time to switch to another weapon. Needless to say, using your melee attack while holding a First Aid Kit does the same amount of damage as any other melee attack, but it's easy to get caught up on trying to heal another Survivor (both the melee attack and healing another Survivor share the same button). Pistols would generally serve better in a serious fight. Defibrillator The Defibrillator ('also referred by Survivors as "chest paddles") is a medical resource found only in ''Left 4 Dead 2. It is a one-time use only device that will revive a dead Survivor. For game balancing purposes, Survivors cannot carry a Defibrillator and First aid kit at the same time. Official Description Bring teammates back from the dead. Like the First Aid Kit, a Defibrillator Unit is a one-time use item. Defibs can resuscitate fallen teammates, and take three seconds to use.http://www.l4d.com/survivors/ellis/ Usage To use the Defibrillator, a player must first select it from inventory. This action will reveal where the closest team mate's corpse is lying via emitting a faint red glow. The user must approach walk the corpse and hold either of the attack buttons. A charging meter, which takes three seconds to complete, will appear followed by a short burst of electricity whereupon the dead Survivor's body will do a sudden jump and will be resurrected. A resurrected Survivor comes back with 50 health (which is permanent health that does not decline like the temporary health obtained after being incapacitated). This player can then pick up all dropped items except for a secondary weapon before continuing. A team message will come up on the left side of the screen identifying who brought whom back to life. Tactically, it is recommended most Survivors carry First aid kits and to designate just have one Survivor as the team's "Defibrillator medic". The Defibrillator is especially useful when playing on Expert and Realism Modes since the risks of a player dying prematurely are extreme in the former and in Realism Mode (along with Versus Mode), there are no rescue closets. A Defibrillator can be used on any Survivor corpse - even if they have already been saved from a rescue closet. It should be noted that in earlier versions of the game if the defibrillator was used on a player's own corpse, the player's "consciousness" would enter the body of the newly-revived teammate. Moreover defibrillation was impossible if somebody is standing over the target corpse. These variables have been changed subsequently. Now when a Survivor is revived, the Survivor in rescue closet will disappear and if a Survivor is rescued via rescue closet, the corpse disappears. This serves to maintain the number of Survivor graphic images at a maximum of four at anytime. Depending on the situation, there may be times when it is a good strategy to intentionally kill a teammate, then revive them with the defibrillator. For example, killing a near-death team mate who is operating at the margin of health in black and white visual mode then using the defibrillator on them will reset their incap count, and restore them to 50 permanent health. This ruthless tactic can be crucial on the higher difficulty settings where health packs and pills/adrenaline are at a premium. AI Survivors cannot pick up or use Defibrillators. The only way they can hold it is if a human player was controlling a Survivor in an online game, and picks one up, but then quits or goes idle, leaving the AI to take over the Survivor holding the Defibrillator. They will not use it and will immediately swap it for a First aid kit if one is available lying around. If someone dies from a hanging death (holding onto a ledge), they cannot be revived using the Defibrillator since they fall and become a ragdoll. However if they are killed by a Molotov or pipe bomb from another Survivor whilst hanging (rather than losing their grip and falling to their death) their body may fall into an accessible area that allows them to be defibbed and revived. An example of one such opportunity exists in respect of the stairs to the first floor in the finale of Dead Center. In reality portable defibrillators cannot revive somebody from death, they are merely designed to physically restart the fibrillating (i.e. contracting out of sync) heart muscle, which may revive a person from the near-death condition (unless the patient's brain is dead, which takes about 5 minutes after the heart stopped beating properly). It specifically cannot save from dying of wounds, so the in-game defibrillator is just a symbolic 'revival item', not any sort of realistic representation of a defibrillator. Defibrillator behavior in Versus Mode was changed slightly as of the June 18th 2010 update: The Director now spawns Defibrillators based on map length, and are limited to only one spawn per map. Reviving a dead Survivor also results in a penalty of 25 points. Secondary/Temporary healing slot Pain Pills '''Pain Pills, unlike the First Aid Kit, will only give the user 50 temporary points of health when taken. When carried by Survivors, it is held on the Survivor's right hip, probably on the belt. Pain Pills can be given to teammates by pressing the melee button (right click on PC or left trigger on 360). Since the health from Pain Pills is only temporary, it will slowly decrease over time, dropping one point every few seconds until all of the temporary health is gone. The Pain Pills you take will restore your movement speed and stop you from limping for as long as your total health is above: (Or equal to) 40%. Since temporary health goes down one point every five seconds, the effects of Pain Pills will last four minutes and 10 seconds, assuming no damage is taken. Keep in mind that taking damage when both permanent health and temporary health exist, permanent health will be taken first. If you have temporary health and your actual health drops below zero, your temporary health will continue dropping until it reaches 1%, where it will stay until you either heal or get incapacitated. Adrenaline Shot Adrenaline Shots are included in Left 4 Dead 2, occupying the Pain Pills' inventory slot. Official Description An Adrenaline Shot gives you a fifteen-second health and energy boost that lets you run faster, use items in half the time, and run through zombies without getting slowed down by their attacks.http://www.l4d.com/survivors/nick/ Usage Upon injection, the user gains 25 temporary health. For 15 seconds, they move faster, do not experience melee fatigue, are immune to the Horde's slowing melee attacks and their speed isn't affected by water. It also increases the speed of using First aid kits, reviving Survivors and reloading and switching weapons and items. As temporary side effects, the user also experiences tunnel vision and sound becomes monophonic, hindering their ability to determine the direction from which a sound came. This can become annoying during a split screen campaign if one player uses Adrenaline too much, as the monophonic penalty affects both players. The Adrenaline Shot is always seen in the Crescendo Event in "The Park". This item could become valuable at the end of a finale, where Survivors must reach a rescue vehicle while being impeded by the Horde. Like Pain pills, the Adrenaline Shot can be passed to a teammate by using the melee button. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4YUXI0UFKQ The Adrenaline Shot is a very precious item during a Scavenge game, as it can increase your speed and the speed of the gas pouring by roughly 50%. Generally two shots will be spawned during a Scavenge game. Wasting them can be a big mistake. The Adrenaline Shot in-game is based on real-life emergency "EpiPen" auto-injectors, which are filled with synthesized epinephrine: literal adrenaline. The adrenaline acts as a vasoconstrictor, slowing the body's allergic response and delaying the victim from going into anaphylactic shock.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epinephrine#Shock_and_anaphylaxis Since as much as 15% of the United States population is considered 'at-risk' for anaphylaxishttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaphylaxis, it is not beyond the realm of plausibility for the adrenaline shots to be found as often as they are, particularly if they were included as part of CEDA's Emergency Relief Supplies. Achievements See main article: Achievements ''Left 4 Dead'' ''Left 4 Dead 2'' Behind the Scenes Early screenshots show that the first aid kit had a more boxlike shape, didn't look like it was made out of soft materials and had a carrying handle at one time. This design can still be seen in the final version's first aid kit icon. Early videos showed it was possible to share med kits like pills instead of healing them (as seen as in this video at 0:36). The placeholder for the adrenaline shot was nothing like a syringe, rather a re-skinned pain pills model with a yellow bottle. The texture can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 files. Then it became an syringe similar to the one used in the HUD before the current look for adrenaline. Likewise, the defibrillator's world model placeholder was a re-skinned first aid kit model. Its textures can still be found in Left 4 Dead 2 files. File:Medkit_b.png|The early Med kit. File:Adrenaline_beta.jpg|Beta Adrenaline. File:Painkillers icon.png|Early HUD icon for Pain pills. File:Ibuprofen.jpg|Pills in real life. Notes * First Aid Kits cannot be used if the player's health is 98 and over, unless the full health amount consists of temporary health. ** Similarly, Pain Pills cannot be used when the player's health is 99 and over, this time regardless of whether the full amount consists of temporary health or not. Adrenaline shots are excepted, however, as they can be used regardless of how much health a Survivor has. This is because even at full health, Adrenaline shots applies the energy boost and each other shot taken resets the timer of the effects of the Adrenaline shot. * Players cannot bring the deceased Bill back to life in The Passing with the Defibrillator. This is due to the Defibrillator being a gameplay mechanic, which goes against its main purpose but is also supposed to explain that Bill had taken too much damage from the Tanks; he has been dead for a long time and it's too late to resurrect him. * A poster in The Terminal advertises these specific Pain pills, saying "Yes, we've got...pills here!" * Even whilst holding Pain pills or a First aid kit, Survivors can still use their flashlight. This is odd, as there is nowhere for the light source to emanate from (or as if the Survivors wore invisible HEV Suits from Half-Life). * In-game, Survivors swallow the entire bottle of Pain pills at once. However, if someone were to do this in real life, they would likely die from overdose soon after or choke on the pills, considering the Survivors don't ingest them with water. Additionally, Ibuprofen usually takes around 20-30 minutes to actually start relieving pain, with a recommended dose of no more than six tablets per day, where in Left 4 Dead, the pills take effect immediately. ** Furthermore, the Survivors take the pills without removing the caps. * In the original levels of Left 4 Dead, syringes can be found lying around which may seem to be Adrenaline Shots; however, they are only for decoration so you cannot use them. * It is possible for a merciful Director to change Pain pills into a First aid kit, even if a Survivor has already seen the pills. * Pain pills are attached to the Survivors' belts with no visible strap holding them. Likewise, the First aid kit and Defibrillator stay on their backs with apparently no straps keeping them on. * After using a First aid kit, small bands of gauze will appear on the right arm and left thigh of the target, but disappear a couple of seconds later. * The First aid kit, like the new Pistol in Left 4 Dead 2, has no walking animation, and freezes on the screen when moving. * The Defibrillator has no cords from the pads to the pack on a Survivor's back. This would make the Defibrillator unusable in real life. * AI Survivors will never take the Defibrillator, similar to their treatment of throwable weapons such as Molotovs and Pipe bombs. * Using a Defibrillator on a Survivor who has become a ragdoll (falling after hanging onto a ledge) may sometimes cause a glitch where the Defibrillator will be used, the animation will play, and it will count towards the achievement, but the Survivor will not be revived. * Louis, Bill, and Francis each seem to have the same healing animation, while Zoey's is unique. While the three men simply strap the gauze around and appear to rip off the excess from their wrist, Zoey straps it around and seems to bite it. This only applies to the first game, however, since the old Survivors are simply the new Survivors re-skinned in the Left 4 Dead 2 ports of No Mercy and The Sacrifice, they use the animations of the new Survivors. * Before the Adrenaline Shot and the Defibrillator models, the beta version of the Adrenaline was a yellow can of Pain pills, and the Defibrillator was a yellow First aid kit with a lightning symbol instead of a cross. * Much like the weapons, the healing items for the first game are based off of real world items. The First aid kit is modeled after two types of first aid pouches by Ortovox. Both pouches were designed for use by hikers and skiers and are meant to be fit into hikers' backpacks (which accounts for the lack of shoulder straps on the in-game med kit). The Pain pills also have a label that is based off of the generic brand Ibuprofen from the Target shopping stores prior to April 2010 (to which Target has recently updated their label), with subtle alterations (such as the Target symbol being removed, where it states "Compared to Advil" and the tablet count is replaced with "PAIN KILLERS"). The First aid kit itself also has differences from the real world examples they are based off of, such as the inverting of the first aid symbol (on the real world pouches there is only a white cross. In the in-game version, it is a red cross inside of a white box. Also, where the patch that states the company's name in the real world items, the "First Aid" patch is located in the in-game item). * According to the text on the Adrenaline Shot, it is called "Adrena-shot", contains 0.3 milligrams of adrenaline and may be used to treat allergic reactions and Anaphylaxis, both of which are two real life uses for adrenaline. * On the Xbox 360, there is an unlockable First aid kit avatar reward for finishing all five original campaigns in Left 4 Dead 2. The avatar simply holds it for a moment, puts it down, then moves it a couple of times before it vanishes. * It's also noted that the Medic's achievement (Infernal Medicine) in Team Fortress 2 uses the same HUD icon as the Left 4 Dead Pain pills with a fire effect around it. * Using a Defibrillator on a dead Survivor in an elevator that has been activated will revive the teammate, but the Survivor will be revived in the same exact spot causing him/her to not be in the elevator by the time he/she is revived. On Dead Center's first elevator, this allows the revived teammate to jump into the neighboring elevator and either continue on his own provided that his teammates do not open the elevator doors, or wait in front of the closed elevator. * If you have a First aid kit and are about to complete a level (safe room door closes when all Survivors are inside), you can start to heal yourself and you will replenish your health immediately instead of waiting 5 seconds (3 seconds under the effects of an Adrenaline Shot). * Adrenaline does not increase crouch walking speed. * When playing The Sacrifice in Left 4 Dead 2, the original Survivors cannot vocally identify the Adrenaline Shot. This happens to the Bile bomb, and Explosive/Incendiary Ammunition as well. ** The original Survivors will use the "Look" command to vocalize their discovery of an Adrenaline Shot. Humorously, Zoey may say "Well, this looks dangerous," after she picks up a shot as if she was aware that it could be deadly. This line is normally spoken when she picks up a Pipe Bomb. * For unknown reasons, the Defibrillator does not spawn commonly in the campaigns with the original Survivors, No Mercy and The Sacrifice. You can still find a Defibrillator located in first aid cabinets if your entire team is hurting (which means only one possible spawn in The Sacrifice, and two in No Mercy), but they do not randomly spawn like first aid kits do. Although it's assumed that the reason for this is simply because there were no new spawn points programmed for Defibrillators, it also possible that they simply weren't as common at the time of the Left 4 Dead campaigns, since they take place earlier than the Left 4 Dead 2 campaigns, and Defibrillators were not widespread at that time, with the lack of spawns complying with the timeline of the two games. * Using the Left 4 Dead HUD Icon of the Pain Pills, the same HUD is featured in a Team Fortress 2 achievement. * When viewed from a first person perspective, it is unclear where the Survivors inject the Adrenaline Shots into their arms or body, as the inject animation moves downward to the screen, which could be a part of the Survivor's torso, hence, the arm does not appear upon the animation. However, when viewed from third person, the Survivor is seen injecting the Adrenaline Shot into their hip. See also * Health References Category:Health Category:Game Mechanics